For today’s recipe I took a little inspiration from the flavor profiles of Eastern European sour cherry dumplings. I know they’re an acquired taste, but I grew up with sour cherries and I really love them. But I also like chocolate, so I figured why not make a healthy recipe for some chocolate sour cherry cookies?
These cookies are made with regular flour and oat flakes, for extra nutrients. They also contain semi-sweet chocolate which is a source of anti-inflammatory flavanols. Additionally, the cookies are incredibly easy to make.
Since they’re not overly sweet, the cookies make a perfect mid-morning snack for work or school. They do not contain any nuts, so it is safe to eat them around people with nut allergies.
If you don’t have access to fresh sour cherries, you can use frozen. When I made the recipe I used frozen ones. I just let them thaw in a strainer over a bowl to remove excess juice. You can also use canned, but make sure they don’t contain too much added sugar.
These cookies freeze well if you have too many of them. I like to place them in self-sealing freezer bags, then I just let them thaw at room temperature inside the bag for around 10-15 minutes. After they thaw, I recommend eating them the same day, otherwise they will become hard and dry.
To form the dough balls, I used an ice-cream scoop of 17 ml (1/2 fl. oz.) and this resulted in 15 cookies. The number of cookies will vary with the volume of the ice- cream scoop. The baking time will also differ with cookie size. As a general rule of thumb, you will know the cookies are fully baked once the surface starts to crack.
See more cookie recipes here.
Here you have the recipe for the chocolate sour cherry cookies:
Chocolate Sour Cherry Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (150 g/ 5 1⁄4 oz.) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (100 g/ 3 ½ oz.) quick cooking oats
- 1 stick (115 g/ 4 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅓ cup (70 g/ 2 ½ oz.) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 50 g (1 ¾ oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 15 sour cherries, pitted
Instructions
- In a bowl sift the flour and salt. Add the oat flakes, whisk and set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Using a stand mixer at low speed, or a wooden spoon, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla to a light, creamy and fluffy consistency.
- Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, then allow it to cool a little. Once the chocolate has cooled a little, add it to the butter-sugar mixture and incorporate. Add the egg, egg yolk and mix.
- Add the flour mix in two-three steps, mixing after each addition until well combined, resembling a soft dough.
- Scoop the dough using an ice cream scoop and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, about 5 cm (2 inches) apart. Using your thumb, press into the middle of each cookie. Place a sour cherry into the thumb print of each cookie. Place the bakingtray in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F).
- Take the tray from the fridge and place it directly into the preheated oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the cookies to sit in the pan for 2-3 minutes before taking them out. Transfer to a rack and allow them to cool completely.
